Simmons’s “historical notes” often appear in footnotes. (The third edition adds some material from probability theory.) It’s hard going for a beginner, but it immediately establishes the main point: this stuff plays a central role in the physical sciences. Consider, for example, the first chapter, “The Nature of Differential Equations.” After the usual general remarks, Simmons provides examples: families of curves, growth and decay, chemical reactions, falling bodies, and (amazingly) the brachistochrone. Simmons’s book was very traditional, but was full of great ideas, stories, and illuminating examples. It was at that point that I ran into George Simmons’s Differential Equations with Applications and Historical Notes and fell in love with it. But very little stuck.Ī few years later I found myself needing to teach the basics of differential equations to a class of engineering students, part of their fourth semester calculus course. I did learn how to solve linear differential equations, and I remember the endless proof of existence and uniqueness of solutions, particularly the theorem that explained how the local solutions could be assembled into a solution that was valid in as large a region as possible. My first course in differential equations was a failure.
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